“When he what, Lucy?” William urged, reaching for her chin and turning her face back toward him.
Lucy blinked back the first few tears, her whole body beginning to tremble from the flood of memories that came pouring back into her head. “Last night, he visited me in my room while you were downstairs attending to our guests.” Her voice was cracking with emotion, and she drew another deep breath to calm herself, but when she spoke again, it was in a heartbreaking whimper. “He was wearing the same ugly mask that he wore the night he stabbed my mother.”
“Did he hurt you in any way?” William’s eyes were dark now, his mouth drawn in a grim line.
Lucy shook her head as she wiped at the tears, but as much as she tried, she couldn’t seem to stop them from flowing down her cheeks. “No, but he terrified me. That’s why I took the pistol, William. He’s toying with me as he waits for the right moment to strike. I can just imagine the kind of twisted pleasure he takes in watching me unravel. I’m so sorry that I couldn’t tell you, but he threatened the life of even Vanessa.” Burying her face in her hands, she allowed the pain she’d forced back for so long to rise to the surface, and her whole body shook with the anguish of it all.
A heartbeat later, she felt William’s strong arms wrapping themselves around her, hugging her against him the way he’d done last night. “It’s all right,” he whispered as he gently stroked the top of her head. “You did the right thing.”
His words of kindness forced another sob from deep inside her chest. “I don’t know what to do, William. I’m so scared.”
“We’ll figure it out together,” he promised. “I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you and keep you safe from this murderous dog, but we need to lure him out somehow, and it must be done carefully so as not to alert him. A man like that is likely to act rashly if he feels threatened, and we cannot allow that, not when he has no qualms about killing.”
A shiver raced down her spine at his ominous words. Straightening her back, she eased away a little and stared in wonder as the expert agent who’d been lying dormant in her husband’s body rose to the surface. Though her heart still pounded in her chest, she felt herself calmed by his sudden air of command. “What do you propose?”
He fell quiet for a moment, as if contemplating the issue, but then his eyes brightened with devilish glee, and his lips curled upward into a devious smile. “A scavenger hunt.”
“What?” Lucy couldn’t begin to imagine what he hoped to achieve with such a thing.
“Consider the mask, Lucy.” His eyes were wide with excitement now. “If we find it, we’ll find the killer. The mask is the evidence we need, and he brought it with him into our home. It must be in his room somewhere. It’s so simple, Lucy. All we have to do is find it, and we can do so easily enough and without detection while we keep him occupied with the hunt.”
“And since we’ll have written the clues,” Lucy added, warming to the idea, “we’ll have the perfect excuse not to participate in the hunt ourselves.”
“We’ll send everyone off to the conservatory or to the stables even…somewhere that will keep our assassin at a safe enough distance while we conduct our search. And then, once he’s been unveiled, we’ll have him bound and gagged while we send for the local constable. Just another day in which to keep you safe,” he muttered as he pushed a loose strand of hair back behind her ear and met her gaze. “Tomorrow you’ll be free, Lucy. I promise.” Leaning forward, he then placed a soft kiss upon her lips before moving back to his spot on the other side of the blanket.
Lucy’s heart fluttered in response to his attention, and she found herself wishing that he had stayed close to her for a little while longer. But when her stomach growled a moment later, she was reminded that she was in fact quite hungry. Picking up a piece of cheese from her plate, she sank her teeth into it and began to eat, noting that William had already finished off his ham and cheese and was presently in the process of opening the bottle of wine. He offered her a glass, which she accepted without pause. “To your parents,” he told her solemnly as he clinked his glass against hers.
She hesitated a moment while she reminisced, hoping that William was right in his assessment and that she’d finally be able to put the whole ordeal behind her. Of course he was; this was his area of expertise after all.
Shaking off her misgivings, she took a sip of the wine instead, enjoying the powerfully rich flavor that it offered as it flowed down her throat, warming her from the inside out. Gazing across at her wonderful husband, she contemplated telling him how she felt about him, but she hesitated a moment too long, and suddenly her chance to confess how much she’d grown to love him had passed. He was on his feet tearing off breadcrumbs from his roll and tossing them to some eager ducks out on the lake.
Lying back on her elbows, Lucy stretched her legs out in front of her and nibbled on her apple slices while she quietly watched him—his tall frame so handsomely clad in a snug pair of caramel-colored breeches and a dark green, tight-fitting jacket. He wasn’t wearing a hat, and his hair, which had probably been neatly arranged by his valet that morning, had become tousled in the meantime—a look Lucy remembered from when she had kissed him a couple of days earlier in the garden. It was a look that made her insides melt and her heart beat faster, for it gave him an air of masculinity like no other—something elementary that drew her to him like nothing else ever would. “As sorry as I am for the way in which it happened, I’m truly glad that I married you, William.” Her voice was soft as she spoke.
He turned back to face her, a little startled perhaps, judging from his expression, but then he smiled and his whole face lit up. “And though I didn’t care for your approach to the matter, I find myself forced to admit that you make a far better match for me than Lady Annabelle ever would have done.”
Well, it wasn’t exactly a declaration of his affection for her, but it was close enough. He no longer resented her for trapping him, and for that she could only be thankful.
Tossing the last bit of bread in the water, he turned back toward her once more and began tugging off his jacket and pulling at his cravat. “We still have a lot of time to spare before my father returns with Lady Ridgewood. How about if we make the most of it and go for a swim?”
“A swim? William, you cannot be serious.” And yet she knew that he’d never been more so, for there was a look in his eyes that spoke of trouble and mischief and…something far more wicked.
He pulled his shirt from beneath his waistline and went to work on the buttons. “Absolutely,” he told her seriously.
“But…someone could happen upon us at any moment.” Her mouth was beginning to grow dry from looking at him. His shirt was now gone; he’d pulled off his boots and had begun unfastening his breeches. Heaven help her if she didn’t feel terribly hot all of a sudden. Where on earth was her fan when she needed it?
“Nobody’s ever come this way when I’ve been here, so the only person who’ll be looking at your lovely body will be me, and I plan to do a lot of looking, for this will be the first time when I see you in the light of day.” With a quick tug, his breeches and unmentionables were suddenly both removed, leaving him completely nak*d before her. “But as you can see, it’s highly unlikely that all I will do is look.”
Indeed.
Lucy forced herself to swallow. Heat flooded her veins, and her br**sts tightened against her bodice as she reminded herself to breathe. Their lovemaking last night had felt wonderful, she remembered, and as every thought of their wanton behavior together filled her mind, a sense of longing sprang to life inside her, and she grew unexpectedly brazen. “You’ll have to help me undress,” she murmured on a sultry breath of air.
William’s grin turned sinful, and when he spoke, his voice was low and guttural. “Nothing would give me greater pleasure, my dear.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Instinct told him to rush forward and rip the gown from her body, yet somewhere amidst the rush of heat pumping through his veins and the heady desire that numbed his mind, he found the restraint he needed and stepped forward slowly instead. Her back was turned to him now, but before she’d turned away, he’d glimpsed the deep blush in her cheeks as she’d studied his nak*d form. A slow smile tickled the corners of his mouth as he came close enough to touch her—the neat row of buttons lining the curve of her back, beckoning to be unfastened.
Reaching out, he let his fingers trail along the length of her spine. She shivered in response, her breath just ragged enough to ensure that he was having the desired effect. With one more step, he pressed his chest against her back, circled her waist with his arms and pulled her against him. Lowering his lips to the sweep of her neck, he then kissed her until she swayed against him with a moan of pleasure.
His breath had grown short, and he had no choice but to close his eyes momentarily while he sought for control. It was almost too much to bear—the billowing folds of her gown caressing him, bringing him to the height of arousal. He’d have to take care not to embarrass himself. In fact, the sooner they made it into the lake, the better. His fingers began to toy with the first button, urging it through its hole before moving on to the next. He’d never been intimate in a lake before, and the prospect of being so now with Lucy was becoming more enticing by the second.
Unfastening the last of the buttons, he pulled her gown wide apart, drawing a tremulous breath as he eased the sleeves from her shoulders, allowing the garment to fall away—discarded and forgotten. He hadn’t realized until now that the only thing that remained to be removed was her chemise. “No corset?” His voice was raspy to his own ears while his hands traveled up and down the length of her sides, crumpling the delicate fabric that remained until it was up around her waist.
“Not today,” she murmured. She offered no further explanation, but her voice was soft and sensuous when she spoke, and when he paused again, reminding himself to breathe, she stepped nimbly out of his grasp and pulled the chemise over her head.
With his mouth gone dry and his heart knocking against his chest, William stared in wonder as the flimsy fabric fluttered in the breeze before sailing to the ground beside her. Returning his gaze to Lucy’s alluring figure, he felt his groin tighten with need as she turned around to face him. And as if his self-control wasn’t hanging by a thin enough thread already, she served him the most wanton of gazes as she stepped toward him, her hands not limp by her sides but traveling over her h*ps and buttocks instead in a most tantalizing fashion.
Bloody hell!
To think that she’d been but an innocent maid a mere day ago…Well, he’d apparently brought out the minx in her, and while nothing pleased him more, he was also alarmingly aware that his desire to have her was now undeniably urgent. Without a word, he closed the distance between them and swept her up in his arms in one swift move. She gasped—her eyes wide with surprise—but he ignored it. There was only one thing on his mind right now, and nothing was going to delay him any further. With brisk steps, he found himself waist deep in the cool water of the lake, and then, without warning, he plummeted under, taking Lucy with him in a violent splash.